The Malahat Review publishes poetry, short fiction, and creative nonfiction by emerging and established writers from Canada and abroad as well as reviews of the latest Canadian books.

The Malahat Review welcomes submissions in English of previously unpublished work in any of these three genres in a broad range of forms and styles, and the Editorial Boards are pleased to receive submissions from all writers who wish to send their work for consideration, including writers from communities normally under-represented in most literary magazines, in particular Indigenous writers, writers of colour, LGBTQIA2S?+ writers, and writers with disabilities.

Onlyelectronic submissions, including submissions to contests, are accepted for consideration, and these can be made using the appropriate buttons below. Mailed or emailed submissions are not accepted.

To display the submission guidelines for each genre listed below, please click on the link "More" to the right of each heading, or simply click the "Submit" button. Writers may submit workonly once per calendar year in each genre that The Malahat Review publishes.

Submissions are read all year. To emphasize the contemporary nature of the writing it publishes, The Malahat Review seldom accepts work with more than one issue's delay in publication.

The best way to know what kinds of work we publish is to order an issue for $14.95 in Canada (including shipping and postage), $16.95 for U.S. orders, and $17.95 for those from elsewhere. You can also subscribe for $35 a year if you live in Canada; $40 (U.S.), or $45 (elsewhere). Orders may be placed electronically at www.malahatreview.ca or mailed to: The Malahat Review, University of Victoria, P.O. Box 1700, Station CSC, Victoria, BC, Canada, V8W 2Y2.

The Malahat Review invites creative nonfiction writers to enter the Constance Rooke Creative Nonfiction Prize, for which one prize of $CAN 1,000 is awarded. The contest is open to Canadian and international writers anywhere in the world, with a final deadline of midnight (PDT) on 1 August 2019. All entries are judged anonymously, and the winning piece will be published in the magazine's winter issue #209. The Constance Rooke Creative Nonfiction Prize is awarded to the best work submitted to the magazine’s annual contest for a genre that embraces, but is not limited to, the personal essay, memoir, narrative nonfiction, social commentary, travel writing, historical accounts, and biography, all enhanced by such elements as description, dramatic scenes, dialogue, and characterization.

2019 Deadline
The deadline for the Constance Rooke CNF Prize contest is August 1, 2019 at midnight PDT.

Judge
Meet the judge for the 2019 contest:

Yasuko Thanh

Book Prize
In addition to the $1000 prize, we're giving away a book prize to one lucky contest entrant! All you have to do is submit your work to the contest, and you'll be automatically entered to win.

About Constance Rooke

Connie Rooke (1942–2008) was born Constance Merriam Raymond in New York City. She pursued undergraduate studies at Smith College, where she won the same writing scholarship earlier held by Sylvia Plath (a matter of some pride). After a year roaming around Europe, she settled in New Orleans, concentrating on graduate studies at Tulane. In 1967, she began working on her PhD at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she took over the editorship of the venerable Carolina Quarterly, and met and married Leon Rooke, the writer in residence at the time. In 1969, she joined the University of Victoria’s Department of English. Read more.

Guidelines
Writers may submit one piece of creative nonfiction per entry.

The entry must be no longer than 3,000 words. Please double-space your work and include a word count on the first page of your entry.

There are no restrictions on subject matter or aesthetic approach. For example, the entry may be personal essay, memoir, cultural criticism, nature writing, or literary journalism. (Read our Creative Nonfiction mandate here.)

All entries are judged anonymously (no identifying information is to be included on any story submitted).

Multiple entries are allowed (at a reduced fee, if paid for at the same time as the initial entry: see Entry Fees, Additional Entries, and How to Submit below).

Entry Fee

$35 CAD for Canadian entries

$40 US for American entries

$45 US for entries from Mexico and outside North America

$15 CAD for any additional entries, no limit

see How to Pay (below) for detailed instructions

Entrants receive, for themselves or a friend, a one-year print subscription to The Malahat Review (for the initial entry only; no subscriptions are available for additional entries made along with the initial entry). Digital subscriptions and digital/print bundle subscriptions are not available through any of the magazine's contests.

Additional Entries
To receive the reduced entry fee(s) of $CAN 15.00, any additional entries must be paid for at the same time as the first entry; such additional entries should be submitted online within 24 hours of the initial submission. The same guidelines apply to additional entries as to the initial submission.

Eligible EntriesNo work already published (even if only excerpted, or even if revised since original publication), already accepted for publication, or simultaneously submitted elsewhere is eligible for consideration. The Malahat Review considers any appearance in print or online to be a publication, whether the form of publication be a newspaper, newsletter, magazine, anthology, chapbook, book, website, personal website or blog, Twitter, Facebook, or other suchlike forum for public circulation. This restriction on eligibility applies regardless of the size of the print run or the extent of the circulation of previously published work.

Failure to comply with these criteria for eligibility will immediately disqualify any entry, regardless of when the ineligibility is discovered in the process of adjudication (submission, processing, screening, shortlisting, final judging). The entry fee for a disqualified entry will not be refunded, and the entrant will still receive a one-year subscription to the magazine.

NotificationThe winner will be notified by email. Other entrants will not be notified of the judge’s decisions.

The shortlisted finalists will be announced in early October 2019 on The Malahat Review's website and social media accounts. The winner will be announced a week later. The winner will be interviewed, and the interview will be published subsequently on The Malahat Review's website, and in the December 2019 or January 2020 edition of Malahat lite, the magazine's monthly e-newsletter.

The winning entry will be published in the winter 2019 issue of The Malahat Review (in circulation January 2020).

How to Pay
Payment must be made online through The Malahat Review Store (if you do not have a credit card, you can pay by cheque or money order: see below).

Unless you are paying by cheque or money order, you must pay the entry fees before making your submission, since you must include your ORDER # with your submission.

If you are unable to pay by credit card, you can mail a cheque or money order (made out to The Malahat Review) in $CAN or $US to The Malahat Review, McPherson Library, University of Victoria, PO Box 1800, Stn CSC, Victoria, BC, V8W 3H5, Canada.

If paying by cheque or money order, you must indicate "cheque" or "money order" as required on the submission form.

Online payments will not be accepted after the contest deadline (if you have any problems with such payment, please write to malahat@uvic.ca). Payment by cheque or money order must be mailed with a postmark date of no later than 1 August 2019.Go to our online store to pay your contest fee(s).

How to Submit
Only online submissions made through The Malahat Review's Constance Rooke Creative Nonfiction Prize portal on the Submittable website will be accepted.

Acceptable file formats: Word (.doc or .docx) or PDF only.

If paying by credit card, you must pay before you submit, since you will be asked to provide your ORDER # with the submission of each entry.

If paying by cheque or money order, you will be asked to specify which form of payment with the submission of each entry.

You can make only one entry at a time on the Submittable webpage; to submit additional entries, whether at the reduced rate (paid for at the same time) or at a standard rate, simply follow the same process as with the initial submission (the ORDER # will be the same for additional entries paid for at the same time as the initial submission; it will be different for an entry or entries made at a later date, since these require the full fee).

You can save a draft of your submission before clicking on the "SUBMIT" button (at the bottom of the page) to make the actual submission.

Poetry submissions should consist of three to five poems (10 pages of poetry maximum), on any subject and in any style. Submissions longer than 10 pages will not be read. The magazine often accepts several poems by the same author; therefore, please do not limit your submission to a single poem.

Please submit your poems (typed, single-spaced, with new poems starting on a separate page) in a single.doc, .docx, or .pdf file. All submissions must be paginated. Please also include your complete contact information (name, mailing address, email address, telephone)in a header or footer on each page of your submission. Insert "Poetry Submission" when prompted by Submittable for a title in the Title field. In the case of translated poems, translators should supply (or be able to supply) evidence of permission to publish their translations, and ideally include a copy of the original(s) with the submission.

In the Cover Letter field, please include at least the following information: your name, full mailing address, email address, telephone number; the title of each submitted poem; and a short biographical note. For statistical purposes, please make sure to indicate your province/state and/or country of origin.

Response times will vary from one to six months after the date of submission.

Poets may submit their work only once per calendar year.

Once a month, we send out an e-newsletter with information on writing contests, author interviews, upcoming issue launches, and more. If you'd like to receive this e-newsletter please subscribe with your e-mail address here: http://www.malahatreview.ca/issues/malahat_lite.html

Submissions of previously unpublishedshort fiction may be up to 8,000 words in length. No submission may consist of more than one story, unless you are submitting flash fiction. Up to three flash fictions(each no longer than 750 words) may be submitted in one submission, and they must be submitted in a single file.

Please submit your short fiction (typed, double-spaced, and paginated) in a single .doc, .docx, or .pdf file, and on the first page specify the number of words in the story, or stories, submitted. Please include your complete contact information (name, full mailing address, email address, telephone number) in a header or footer on each page of your submission. In the Title field please insert the title of your story or, in the case of flash fiction, the number of stories followed by "flash fiction(s)": e.g., 1 flash fiction; 3 flash fictions.

In the Cover Letter field please also include the following information: name, full mailing address, email address, telephone number; title of story (stories) submitted and number of words; and a short biographical note. For statistical purposes, please make sure to indicate your province/state and/or country of origin in your cover letter.

Response times will vary from one to nine months after the date of submission.

Authors of fiction may submit their work only once per calendar year.

Once a month, we send out an e-newsletter with information on writing contests, author interviews, upcoming issue launches, and more. If you'd like to receive this e-newsletter please subscribe with your e-mail address here: http://www.malahatreview.ca/issues/malahat_lite.html

Creative nonfiction as understood at The Malahat Review can include, but is not limited to, the personal essay, memoir, narrative nonfiction, social commentary, travel writing, historical accounts, and biography, all enhanced by such elements as description, dramatic scenes, dialogue, and characterization.

Submissions of creative nonfiction — literary writing based in fact — may be up to 4,500 words in length. Unless the pieces are very short (i.e., less than 1,000 words), no submission may consist of more than one story. No restrictions as to subject matter or approach apply.

Please make your creative-nonfiction submission (typed, double-spaced, and paginated) in a single .doc, .docx, or .pdf file, and specify the number of words in each story submitted on the first page and in your cover letter. Please include your complete contact information (name, full mailing address, email address, telephone number) in a header or footer on each page of your submission.

In the Cover Letter field please include the following information: your name, full mailing address, email address, telephone number; the title(s) of the piece(s) submitted with a word count, and a short biographical note. For statistical purposes, please make sure to indicate your province/state and/or country of origin in your cover letter.

Response times will vary from one to nine months after the date of submission.

Authors of creative nonfiction may submit their work only once per calendar year.

Once a month, we send out an e-newsletter with information on writing contests, author interviews, upcoming issue launches, and more. If you'd like to receive this e-newsletter please subscribe with your e-mail address here: http://www.malahatreview.ca/issues/malahat_lite.html